Rishi Sunak’s bombshell announcement to bring back the former British prime minister David Cameron and his coterie of “Cameroons” into the inner circle of government has shocked the right-wing elements of the Tory party and could destabilise the government.
To the amazement of nearly all in Westminster, the British Prime Minister named Cameron – who has been out of parliamentary life for seven years – as the country’s new Foreign Secretary, and at the same time kicked outspoken home secretary Suella Braverman out of cabinet.
Amid the surprised commentariat were immediate remarks about Cameron’s solidity, a safe pair of hands, and a political shift of tone of the Sunak cabinet back towards the centre.
But as the day wore on Sunak’s decision to bring back an ex-prime minister – the first time in more than 50 years – soon became seen as desperate rather than inspired.
His political opponents began describing the day as a “Cameron coup” and right-wing elements were coalescing behind Braverman, whose direct language about migrants and the “hate marches” using anti-Semitic language and placards in central London have been hailed by many Tory voters.
Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns was the first to submit a no-confidence letter to Tory party chairman on Monday night aimed at Sunak.
“I support Suella Braverman. Sacked for speaking the truth. Bad call by Rishi caving in to the left!” she tweeted.
All the while Lord Cameron, as he is now known following a hasty life peerage conferred by King Charles, issued a statement, projecting a tone of senior statesman coming to the rescue of a failed government.
He said, with little humility: “Though I may have disagreed with some individual decisions, it is clear to me that Rishi Sunak is a strong Prime Minister, who is showing exemplary leadership at a difficult time.
“I want to help him to deliver the security and prosperity our country needs and be part of the strongest possible team that serves the United Kingdom and that can be presented to the country when the general election is held.”
And on the Foreign Office? Cameron said: “The UK’s Foreign Office, our Diplomatic Service, our Intelligence Services and our Aid and Development capabilities are some of the finest assets of their kind anywhere in the world.
“I know from my time in office that they are staffed by brilliant, patriotic and hard-working people. They have been well led by James Cleverly, with whom I look forward to working in his vital new role.”
Sunak has promoted some of Cameron’s closest aides, such as his former speech writer Laura Trott to the position of Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Ric Holden, the deputy head of the Tory press office when Cameron was prime minister, has become party chairman.
Esther McVey, who was in Mr Cameron’s cabinet in 2013, has also returned to cabinet, but without a portfolio. Her brief is to deal with the divisive issues around “wokery”.
The party’s right wing is furious at being outflanked.
Cameron is the former prime minister, remember, who was so skilled at diplomacy that he forced Britain into a dramatic 2016 Brexit referendum to appease Brussels, and then having hitched his wagon to the Remain cause, refused to implement Brexit by resigning instead.
Brexiteers won’t trust him for that, and Remainers won’t forgive him.
Cameron has just hours to show just where his European loyalties lie, with a Supreme Court appeal judgment to be handed down on Wednesday ruling on the government’s scheme to send illegal migrants to Rwanda.
If the scheme is confirmed as illegal, an option for the government will be to remove itself from the jurisdiction of the European Convention on Human Rights.
A snap poll of more than 2000 people by YouGov showed that less than a quarter thought the decision to bring Cameron into the cabinet was a good idea. Thirty eight per cent thought it was a bad idea.
The Speaker of the House of Commons, Sir Lindsey Hoyle, immediately signalled his views, demanding that parliamentary clerks ensure the new Foreign Secretary is “properly accountable” given the gravity of the current international situation.
As a lord, Cameron answers questions in the Lords and not in the Commons, meaning lower-house scrutiny of foreign policy decisions will have to be via other ministers in the Foreign Office.
In the meantime, Cameron’s political enemies have been raking through his foreign policy faux pas, not just during his tenure before 2016, but some of the questionable decision-making during his seven years outside of government.
Significantly, a UK foreign affairs select committee found Cameron failed to develop a coherent Libya strategy, which led to Libya becoming a failed state on the verge of all-out civil war after Britain’s intervention in Libya in 2011.
Most controversially in his non-political life, Cameron became an adviser to his own adviser, Australian financier Lex Greensill, earning several million pounds for parliamentary lobbying efforts, including texting Sunak, then chancellor “multiple times” in 2020 when Greensill Capital was looking for government Covid handouts.
A Treasury select committee found Cameron had shown a significant lack of judgment in regards to this lobbying, but on Monday, he said in his first remarks in his new role when questioned about Greensill: “As far as I’m concerned, that was all dealt with and is in the past.”
Cameron was also known for his pro-China views, including becoming the vice-chairman of the £1bn UK-China fund, which another government committee found had been instigated, in part by the Chinese Community Party.
The Spectator’s headline on Monday was “Is Lord Cameron a ‘useful idiot’ for the CCP?”
Cameron had also remarked in 2010, five years after Israel had left the Gaza Strip: “Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.”
The issue for Sunak is that his insistence that his government, with Cameron as a high-profile part of it, is the party of change and not a return to more of the same.
His constant rejigging of portfolios has seen his government appear unstable.
And by having Braverman outside the strictures of cabinet decisions could create waves for his government.
Sunak’s four ministerial roles are all held by men – the first time in more than a decade. His detractors say he couldn’t find anyone in his coterie of MPs to fill the foreign role.
Now with the Cameron choice/coup/carcrash, Mr Sunak is positioning the party closer to Labour’s centrist positioning of Keir Starmer.
Yet the political landscape is very different now to when Cameron remembers, the most stark is that the Conservatives are 21 points behind in the polls.
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